Student Highlight: Emily, HS Senior

Student Highlight: Emily, HS Senior

One of Brandon’s many jobs has him doing front desk work at a music lessons school. If you have never worked with Brandon in a retail setting, you are missing out on a lot of shenanigans: pranks, banter that usually involves some goofy name calling, even old lady jokes. One of his co-workers who has suffered much of his adolescent humor is Emily. She is a senior in high school who decided to do her research project on sex trafficking. After her paper was finished she decided to dedicate some of her volunteer hours to RLR!

Her first project as a volunteer? Presenting with us at her high school to 200 of her peers! An intimidating thing for anyone, and the girl rocked it! Never missing a beat she led them in a game illustrating the different forms of pimp recruitment, and shared the reasons why she is passionate about this cause. Here are some that she shared:

There was a case this past summer of girls being sex trafficked who went to her school. That opened her eyes to the fact that this injustice could affect her and her friends.

Because pimps recruit through social media, she immediately recognized the danger all teens are in to exploitation.

The new ideas that teens have of making money and independence from parents were also concepts she saw as vulnerabilities pimps could easily manipulate.

Emily said that she ultimately believes it is up to her and her friends to look out for one another and speak up if they see something wrong.

The response from the students at her school was unlike what we had ever seen before when doing a one-day presentation. They were following and posting on social media, taking pictures with us, and visiting us at our table during lunch. It is amazing to see when a Believer displays God’s heart for justice. There is a yearning in those who don’t know Jesus to understand this “good God” that we have in light of the evil we see everyday. When they see us living in a way that brings Love into brokenness, Jesus begins to make more sense.

Emily is now working on setting up a photo shoot with a group of friends, and looking into booking a presentation at her youth group. The girl is rocking it! May you be inspired see every person’s value and look out for those around you.